Extension Asked On Limitations Of Car Imports

February 22, 1985|The Morning Call

U.S. Rep. Lawrence Coughlin, R-13th District, and representatives of the United Auto Workers union yesterday called for extension of an agreement with Japan that limits that country's automobile imports to the United States.

Speaking at a Ford Motor Co. parts plant in Lansdale, Coughlin said, "The American auto industry needs more time to recover from the recent recession before Japanese automakers flood this country with hundreds of thousands of additional cars."

The so-called Voluntary Restraint Agreement with Japan expires March 31. According to the agreement, Japanese automakers are limited to 17 percent of the United States market.

Allowing the agreement to lapse, Coughlin said, could result in the loss of about 200,000 jobs, a jump in the nation's trade deficit with Japan of about $6 billion and a threat to the domestic automobile industry's efforts to modernize its plants.

Coughlin said he has sent letters calling for an extension of the agreement to President Reagan, Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige and U.S. Trade Representative William E. Brock.

On Wednesday, the Montgomery County Republican was a co-sponsor of a House resolution which asks the president to leave the current car import restraints in place until Japan significantly increases its purchases of American-made products.

Joining Coughlin at the gates of the Ford Electronics and Refrigeration Corp. were Joseph Ferrara, regional director of the UAW; John Taylor, director of the union's Pennsylvania Community Action Program Council; Dorothy Turano, president of UAW Local 1695, and William Terrall, the union's regional international representative.

Coughlin said profits posted by General Motors Corp., Chrysler Corp. and Ford Motor Co. in the past two years do not mean the companies are fully able to compete with a wave of imports subsidized by the Japanese government and enjoying additional price advantages due to the strength of the U.S. dollar.

"Our domestic auto industry has started on the road to recovery, but it is not out of the woods yet," the congressman said.